23 December 2015
The Constitution Day Blitz Tournament
Review in pictures from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations by Boris Dolmatovsky.
For the second year in a row the Moscow State Institute of International Relations hosts a chess tournament dedicated to the Russia's Constitution Day. Just as on the previous occasion, the Institute’s chess club was full of guests: graduates and students of the Institute, representatives of the diplomatic corps as well as employees, academic staff and invited persons - the Deputies and employees of the State Duma being among them. The tournament was attended by 53 chess players, whereas the number of fans was no less than that.
The tournament was opened by Acting Prorector of MGIMO for General Affairs Artem Malgin, who spoke about the types of chess activities carried out by the Institute and the role of chess in the life of diplomats. The State Duma Deputies Dmitry Gorovtsov and Dmitry Khorolia addressed the audience with a keynote speech. The head of the MGIMO chess club Vladislav Vorotnikov, a son of the well-known Moscow chess players Vorotnikovs , refreshed the participants on the tournament regulations.
Many players were awarded with the chess books from the "Russian chess school," handed in by Anton Kuzin. He also handed over a special prize "For the development of the children's chess" to the Director of the FIDE Representative in Russia, the FIDE President Adviser Berik Balgabaev to be subsequently awarded to the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
...However, it was only the last round that ended up sorting all non-principal winners into their final places, whereas the principal winner had been determined much earlier, him being an officer of the Moscow Region Government, the International Master Alexander Moskalenko upon having gained 10.5 out of 11. The second place was taken by the MGIMO student, the last year's event winner Stanislav Babarykin with 9.5 points. The Gazprom representative Pavel Rozanov finished third with 8.5 points on his score.
The prizes were awarded to the young participants and veterans as well. It is interesting to note that one of them, the FIDE master Vadim Belov, has two daughters and a granddaughter who graduated from MGIMO, while the father himself used to be the secretary of the Institute’s Communist party organization during the Soviet era.
During the closing ceremony the participants were congratulated by Alexey Levin - the Chairman of the Central Board of the All-Russian public organization "The Russia’s Labor Valor" and the Hero of the Socialist Labor, who went on to award the distinctive badges of his organization to a selected number of the ceremony’s participants.
